For production of a semiconductor chip, as is well known among people skilled in the art, many rectangular regions are demarcated by streets arranged in a lattice pattern on the face of a semiconductor wafer, and a semiconductor circuit is applied in each of the rectangular regions. Normally, the back of the semiconductor wafer is ground to decrease the thickness of the semiconductor wafer, and then the semiconductor wafer is cut along the streets to separate the rectangular regions individually, thereby forming semiconductor chips. Recently, a method has been carried out in which prior to grinding of the back of the semiconductor wafer, grooves of a required depth are formed along the streets on the face of the semiconductor wafer, and then the back of the semiconductor wafer is ground to make the thickness of the semiconductor wafer not more than the depth of the grooves, whereby the rectangular regions are separated individually to form semiconductor chips. In either method, when the back of the semiconductor wafer is to be ground, a tape is stuck to the face of the semiconductor wafer in order to protect the semiconductor circuits. With the tape-bearing face being pointed downward, namely, with the face and the back being inverted, the semiconductor wafer is held on chuck means, and grinding means is caused to act on the back of the semiconductor wafer. Holding of the semiconductor wafer by the chuck means is performed by vacuum attraction, which is a method involving the formation of a holding zone of the chuck means from a porous material, and suction through the holding zone.
To form a very compact, lightweight semiconductor chip, it has recently been often desired that the thickness of the semiconductor wafer be markedly decreased, for example, to 100 μm or less, especially 50 μm or less. If the thickness of the semiconductor wafer is very small, however, the rigidity of the semiconductor wafer also becomes so low as to pose considerable difficulty in handling the semiconductor wafer, for example, transporting the semiconductor wafer from the top of the chuck means into a cassette container. This transportation of the semiconductor wafer can be carried out, if a tape with relatively high rigidity, e.g. a relatively thick polyethylene terephthalate film or sheet, is used as a tape to be stuck to the face of the semiconductor wafer via a suitable pressure sensitive adhesive. Sticking of the tape with relatively high rigidity to the face of the semiconductor wafer, however, makes it considerably difficult to peel the tape from the face of the semiconductor wafer without damaging the semiconductor wafer.